Brennan Torpedo

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Rear view of replica at HK Museum of Coastal Defence

Front view, cut out shows the two drums of wire, used for propulsion and guidance.

The Brennan Torpedo was the world's first guided missile. Patented by Irish inventor Louis Brennan in 1877, it worked by two contra-rotating propellors that were spun by rapidly pulling out wires from drums wound inside the torpedo. Differential speed on the wires connected to the shore station allowed the torpedo to be guided to its target, up to 2,000 yards away.

After initial trials near Melbourne, Australia, an experimental station was established in the UK at Garrison Point Fort on the River Thames. Operational stations were established in the UK at Cliffe Fort, Fort Albert on the Isle of Wight and Plymouth. Other stations included Fort Camden in Cork, Ireland, and Lei Yue Mun Fort in Hong Kong.

The only remaining original Brennan Torpedo is exhibited at the Royal Engineers Museum in Chatham, Kent. However, traces of the installation at Fort Camden in County Cork remained as recently as 1985

This type of torpedo only sank one ship, and that was by accident .^{[citation needed]}